3 minute read
Student Well-Being Recap (The Glen, Spring 2024)
Student Well-being prioritizes students’ social, emotional, mental, and physical well-being through direct and indirect contact. There are ongoing Student Well-being poster campaigns throughout the year to help reinforce positive messaging around the school. In addition to one-to-one support available to students, programmes/ speakers are selected to highlight important topics or themes throughout the school year. To commemorate International Women’s Day in March, Girls Up Club took responsibility for the scavenger hunt and a poster campaign that showcased some phenomenal women, whilst the Lower School and the Prep School welcomed hockey pioneer, Dr. Justine Blainey-Broker as the special guest speaker. (Her visit to our school was timely as this is the first year of the Professional Women’s Hockey League and PWHL Toronto has made the playoffs).
Dr. Blainey is an unrelenting fighter who is recognized for removing sexual discrimination in sports from the Ontario Human Rights Code before she was 10; and fought her way through five cases in the court system until she got victory at age 16. In her talk, she paid homage to those who came before her such as Abbey Hoffman, another women’s hockey pioneer, who disguised as a boy and played hockey in the 1950s using the name Ab Hoffman. In her presentation, Dr. Blainey used hockey puns as she enthusiastically outlined “Ten Strategies to Beat the Checks of Life” while recounting her fight for the right for girls to play competitive hockey with boys, interspersed with themes of family, sacrifice, determination, resilience, and justice.
Dr. Blainey encouraged students to embrace mistakes and challenges as a normal part of growth. She stressed the importance of developing a winning attitude and finding resources “because champions get up, persist, and they ask for help”. She promoted and shared the use of some of her daily affirmations that she uses for self-care, motivation, boost confidence, improve mental health, and maintain a positive mindset, such as, “every day in every way I am getting better and better” and to emphasize her commitment to service, “I am ready go live, ready to love, and ready to serve.”
Dr. Blainey stressed the importance of pursuing dreams while having a Plan B. Although she won in the Supreme Court, she was still unable to play hockey at the level she anticipated, but she played other sports at the national level, and for 10 years she even served as the chiropractor for the Canadian Olympic team. Students learn about resiliency and the importance of pivoting when things do not go as planned. Dr. Blainey’s talk resonated well with students who described her presentation as, “powerful message” “expressive”, “energetic”, “exciting”, “absolutely inspirational”, and “her emotion added depth to her presentation.”
Mental Health Supports
Kids Help Phone 1(800)668-6868 for 24/7 support for children and youth: kidshelpphone.ca
Find a therapist: Psychologytoday.com
